


Five Steps

by theotheralissa



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 19:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5017426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theotheralissa/pseuds/theotheralissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ohno gets some helpful advice from some very unexpected places.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Steps

**Author's Note:**

> [Wonderfalls](http://www.tv.com/shows/wonderfalls/) AU. Complete with inanimate objects talking to Ohno and the hijinks that ensue. Not sure how or why this happened but here it is XD

Ohno didn’t always know that he could talk to shoes. 

Or rather. He did know that people could talk to shoes. At shoes, anyway, if he was late leaving his house and blindly asking his shoes where they were. Or the time he went to LA with Jun and watched Jun talk to walls of them in the shoe store he was dragged to. There was also the time Aiba told them about when his flip flop slipped off while he was riding a ferris wheel and said he’d called out after it as he watched it disappear. 

Humans can talk to shoes. Ohno knows that. 

He didn’t know, however, that shoes could talk to him. 

_Five steps forward and turn to the right._

The right shoe says while the left shoe sits silently.

It’s after morning dance rehearsals and Ohno is alone in the studio working on the last of the choreography he needs to finish. It’s getting down to the wire and he has to finish this song soon. A few days ago, in fact, but he was having trouble getting it together and the manager (through more than a little begging) asked the tour director to give Ohno just a few more days. Even so, Ohno’s been standing here in front of the mirror for the better part of an hour just looking at his reflection and wondering what the hell he’s going to do. 

He wore sandals to work and then changed into sneakers at the dance studio. He takes off his sneakers and goes to put them in his bag and that’s when the right one talks. 

_Five steps forward and turn to the right_ , it says, as if talking is the most natural thing in the world for a shoe to do. 

The first thing Ohno does is drop both shoes on the floor. He looks behind him, half expecting someone to come out from behind the curtains and shout “Surprise!” or for a camera crew to come in and tell him he’s being pranked but nothing happens. The shoes fall to the ground and echo in the empty dance studio. 

Ohno looks at them, nudges one of them with his toe. Nothing happens. 

\---

Ohno spends the rest of the day looking down at his shoes at odd times. 

“Anything interesting down there?” Sho asks him. Ohno just furrows his brow and shakes his head. He’s honestly a little disappointed that it hasn’t happened again, if only to see that it wasn't all in his imagination in the first place. He’s been working long hours, longer than usual with the choreography needing to be finished on a deadline, and he does get tired and drained mentally too. Although never enough to think his shoes are talking to him before. 

He takes his shoes off when he enters the dressing room, putting on a pair of slippers that have been left out for him and giving the sneakers a lingering look before going all the way inside. 

_Green paper_ , Ohno hears. 

He looks over at Sho who is talking to someone on his cell phone and looks around the room until he sees a pen rolling back and forth on the makeup counter. _Green paper_ , it says again. 

Ohno’s eyes widen and he looks back at his shoes, accusingly, but they don’t say a thing. He looks back at Sho who is fumbling with his pockets and trying to open his bag with one hand while holding his phone with the other. 

The bag spills open and Sho nearly drops his phone but he kneels down and opens up a day planner, flipping through the pages quickly with his one free hand and opening up on a sheet of green paper. He looks up at Ohno a little desperately, gesturing to the counter behind him and even before Ohno looks back he knows what he’s going to see there. 

“Do you know my shoes?” Ohno asks the pen when he picks it up. The pen doesn’t say anything and Sho takes it gratefully when Ohno places it in his hands. 

_Five steps forward and turn to the right_ , Ohno hears from the entrance and looks up just as Sho is turning off his phone. 

“What was that?” Sho asks. 

Ohno groans. 

\---

In the evening, Ohno goes back to the studio. For a while he’s working with one of the choreographers collaborating with them but then he’s left to work on his own. His sneakers don’t say anything to him while he’s dancing with the choreographer, except for some squeaks on the floor, but once he leaves he hears the word _key_ come from the table in the corner of the room. 

He looks around again, thinking Nino might come jumping out and laugh at him and slap him on the back and then tell Aiba who will laugh and slap his back too and they can all laugh about how gullible he is for a while. Talking pens and shoes, right Oh-chan? They’ll say. But instead the voice just gets more insistent. 

_Key!_ it says. _Key! Key!_

It’s a towel on top of the table and the edges of it flutter a little. 

“Alright, alright,” Ohno says. “I’m coming.” 

He picks up the towel and underneath are a set of keys. He recognizes them as Jun’s because of a keychain he has that says “Las Vegas” in glittery letters. He remembers being in the souvenir shop when Jun bought it and insisted Ohno should have one too as a souvenir and while Ohno doesn’t use it for his keys he has it hanging on the key rack in the entrance to his apartment. 

_Key!_ it says again and Ohno knows why the towel is being so urgent because if he doesn’t give the keys to Jun he’s going to get all the way home without them. Ohno might have thought Jun would be prepared with a spare key or someone else with a key to his apartment just in case, but the towel seems to know what it’s talking about and the pen in the dressing room was right too... 

_Five steps forward and turn to the right._

Ohno’s shoe says as he makes a rush for the door. “Not you!” he says. 

_Five steps forward!_ the shoe says, louder this time. Ohno stands at the doorway and he looks ahead. A long hallway stretches out in front of him.

The shoe sighs, exacerbated. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Ohno says. He knows what’s coming up next and, Jun’s keys in hand, instead of waiting for the shoe to speak again he counts the steps one two three four five... Then pivots and turns and almost falling into an opening door. Nino is on the other side of it and Ohno falls right into him, as gracefully as he can manage. They don’t quite topple to the ground together, but Nino lets out a weird yelping sound and Ohno holds on tight to him. They rock like that for a moment then steady. 

“My shoes talked to me,” Ohno says. 

Nino giggles. “Finally losing your mind, old man?” 

“Maybe,” Ohno says, rubbing his jaw a little where he ran into Nino’s shoulder. He can swear the shoe makes a squeaking sound but it could just be the tile floor. 

Nino’s arms stay tight around him and Ohno feels his heart speeding up. He’s clutching the keys and holding on to Nino for support. 

“Finished at the studio?” Nino says in a whisper. They’re almost nose to nose.

“I think so,” Ohno says, finally separating from Nino and this time definitely hearing his shoe sigh as he does so. 

“Going home?” Nino asks. 

“Ah!” Ohno says. “Have you seen Jun?” 

“J already left,” Nino says. “He was going to--” 

But Ohno doesn’t hear the rest of what Nino says because he’s running to the parking garage to give Jun his key and he thankfully finds him there just in front of the elevator. 

He pants and struggles to breathe and hands over the keys while Jun smiles and wraps an arm around him, rubbing his back until he’s breathing normally again. 

“You okay there?” Jun says. 

“Keys,” Ohno says, breathlessly, holding the keys up. 

“Thanks,” Jun says, sweetly, patting him on the back. 

Ohno nods. “Yeah,” he says, thinking that if he hadn’t that towel probably would have kept shouting forever. 

“See you tomorrow?” Jun says. 

“See you,” Ohno says, waving to him a little. Then he turns around and the plant next to the elevator starts moving. It cranes down and looks like it’s talking to his shoe. 

“Hey!” Ohno says “If you’re going to--”

 _Ask Aiba_ , the plant says. 

“What?” 

_Aiba_ , the plant says. _Ask Aiba._

Ohno doesn’t know what to make of this except that just that moment Aiba runs into him from behind, cell phone first. 

“Sorry Leader!” Aiba says, holding him by his shoulders so he doesn’t lose his footing. 

“Um,” Ohno says. The plant shifts around behind him, he hears the leaves. “Am I supposed to ask you something?” 

“Oh...” Aiba says, looking much more serious than he did just a moment before. “Is it about... _that_?” 

“That?” Ohno asks. 

“Has anything weird happened today?” 

“Yes!” Ohno says, relief pouring out of him. It isn’t just him. Aiba knows about it too. “The shoes and the towel and--” 

“Shoes and towel?” Aiba asks. 

Ohno looks down at his shoes again. Nothing. 

“I mean about... Nino,” Aiba says. 

“Eh?” Ohno says. “What about him?” 

_Ask Aiba_ , the plant says again and Aiba either doesn’t hear or graciously pretends not to. 

“Can you um,” Ohno says. “Can you tell me about Nino?” 

“I don’t know if I’m really supposed to tell you this but...” he says. “I really want to tell you.” 

Ohno leans in closer. 

“Nino told me,” he says. "That he likes you." 

The plant stays perfectly still. Ohno’s shoes don’t even squeak. 

The elevator _dings_ and it’s so quiet otherwise that the sound makes Aiba jump but it’s just some guy getting off of the elevator that neither of them know. 

_Five steps forward_.

Aiba looks down at Ohno’s shoes at the same time as Ohno now. 

“Did you hear it?” he whispers. 

Aiba nods slowly, eyes wide. “Go!” he says. 

So Ohno goes. He goes without knowing where to go. He takes five steps then ten and then twenty and he still doesn’t know where to go but he reaches a fork in the hallways and hears _and turn to the right_ and he runs straight into Nino for the second time today. 

Nino grumbles a little and Ohno’s heart starts to race much like it did the first time this happened. 

_Kiss._

“What?” Ohno says out loud. Nino looks at him curiously and Ohno looks up and down the hallways to find what it is that was speaking to him. He looks at his own shoes and at Nino’s shoes and at all of the pictures hanging on the walls. The lights, the doorknobs, the fire extinguisher hanging near the doorway. 

_Kiss. ___

It’s in his own voice. In his own head. 

So he remembers how Aiba said _Go!_ and he does it, leaning in and to his surprise Nino lets him. Nino kisses him back and Ohno feels Nino’s arms wrap around him and he can’t help but do the same. They’re in the hallway near the dance studios, probably not the best place to be doing something like this, but Ohno doesn’t care. His shoes are quiet and there aren’t any towels or plants or pens shouting at him. Just him and Nino and the words rolling through his mind _kiss, kiss, kiss_

\---

“So you can talk to shoes huh?” Nino laughs. 

Ohno scowls. "You can talk to shoes too if you want," he says. 

"True," Nino says.

They’re in the dance studio and Ohno is trying to finish his choreography. The manager can’t extend his deadline any longer and it has to be finished by tomorrow. Nino makes a few approving noises at some moves, then shakes his head emphatically no at some others. 

“It’s easier if you’re not in here...” Ohno says under his breath. But he doesn’t say it loud enough for Nino to hear because then Nino might actually leave and he doesn’t really want Nino to go anywhere at all. 

He keeps going until the late hours of the evening while Nino sits at the table with his feet up on the chair playing something on his 3DS. Then after a couple of hours they get a call from the front saying they’re locking up soon and it’s time to go. 

“Got it,” Nino tells them on the phone. “We’ll be right down.” 

Ohno spins around a couple of times and stops facing Nino. 

“Finished?” Nino asks. 

Ohno nods. 

“Then let’s--”

“Kiss,” Ohno says. 

Nino laughs. “I think they’re going to lock us in here if we don’t--”

“Kiss!” Ohno says, more urgently this time because, well, it worked for the towel and the pen and the plant. His shoes squeak approvingly on the floor and he smiles into the kiss that Nino plants on his lips. 

Works for him too.


End file.
